*in reading this, please know that it is dripping with sarcasm & frustration*
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There is a reason I had to cram all of my duties into one day yesterday.
I am having kitteh problems. One of them, and I can't prove which one, is choosing to pee all over anything that looks like bedding in my room. The dog bed at the foot of the bed has been hit three times now, the CAT bed (sometimes near my nightstand, sometimes at the foot of the bed) has been tagged twice now, and MY bed??? Well, I have lost count.
I can't prove which one is doing it, so one at a time I sick both of their noses in it and put them in the cat box as a friendly reminder. More importantly, I can't figure out WHY they are doing it, because I can't figure out the timing. It might be Gaara getting even for my squirting him with the squirt bottle when he shreds my curtains. It might be Mr.Darcy who seems to be struggling with being allowed to sleep in the bedroom with us all at night. It might be that one can't hold his whizz while the other one is using the litter box (which is currently in the master bathroom---and yes, I am trying to think of where to move it, but it has to be in a place where the dog can't get to it, because he's a fan of kitteh flavored "almond roca").
But whatever. Meanwhile, while I try to figure it out, I have to deal with bedding. Now, the king sized comforter?? It doesn't fit in my washing machine. Well, it sort of does. But barely, and I have already flooded the laundry room once trying to force the issue. So I have to go the laundromat.
Just imagine me, in a wheelchair, with a king sized, white comforter, covered in cat pee, going in and out of a laundromat.
I did that Monday.
It is Wednesday, and I am doing it again today.
In my "can't quite reach the button to pause the angry" moments, I consider returning them both to the wilds from whence they came. Or putting them outside for the day. And leaving them to the hawks that I see circling a couple of times a day looking for a snack on the hillside behind the house.
No, I won't do that.
But I feel like it.
Advice welcome.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
please read this before you report me to the authorities
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11 comments:
Have you considered getting them each their own box? It's supposed to help. Kitties don't like to share. :-)
I know a number of people have had excellent luck with the Feliway line of products. Apparently there's some sort of hormone in the product that makes them think they already marked this territory, and don't need to do so again. There's a spot treatment, but also something like a Glade Plug in. LOL It plugs into the outlet and releases the scent in the room. A number of my friends (my mother also) used it and while it didn't 100% cure all the cases, it did DRASTICALLY reduce the number of incidents.
Oh, a couple of things...Feliway is available at Petco, but it's cheaper online (my next door neighbor recommends www.catfaeries.com)
And while the CATS can smell the product, humans can't.
And I should mention two different vets (in two different practices) have recommended this product to my mom.
Before you spend the hard earned cash, Close that door when you aint in there's.
L.A.
My only suggestion is to put up the "good" comforter and use smaller bits of bedding.
It's a hard call. You have to get into the psychology of why the kitteh is acting out.
Oh bummer. I've had the same problem (now he's just senile and thinks he's in the litter box when he sometimes isn't - at least all the way) and Feliway did help. And the friend who recommended it to me said it worked wonders with her kittehs.
Two kitties? At *least* two boxes in different places -- and the autoscooper ones deceive the monsters into at least feeling like they can pee somewhere nice and clean and dedicated to them.
We're veterans of the thinking outside the box problem.
Sigh.
WCD
I know nothing about cats, but getting a second litter box sounds like it might help.
Someone is marking territory so all the suggestions - close the bedroom door if you can, second catbox and Feliway should help although we had this problem for years and it only ended when our fourth cat died. Hopefully you can solve it though! In our household the least dominant cat has always been the one doing the marking so that may help you sort out who is doing it. One more thing to try is to put something on your bed in particular that the cats won't like to walk on. Hopefully this is temporary. You can spend a lot of money on a "scat mat" - which will give them a mild shock and would discourage them from being on the bed. Simpler might be to buy some hardware cloth or chicken wire to lie on top of the bed. You just want to make it unpleasant for them to be there. We tried using the plastic mats that go under a desk chair turned upside down (lots of little spikes) but that didn't work.
Good luck - marking cats are a pain!
Yuck! I send all my condolences.
I have always had two cats at a time, and have had this problem before.
Most often this behavior has meant that one or both of the cats have a urinary tract infection. I would get that checked first.
I once had one pair of cats where separate boxes was the solution, but even that was a little tricky. One of them would pee in either box, and the other would only go in a box that the first cat NEVER peed in. The first cat was older an no longer could jump well. We ended up putting a second box on an old table in the basement which the older cat could not access. That worked very well, except for the need to retrain the young cat so she learned that there was only table in the universe that cats are allowed to walk upon.
Good luck!
My friend also uses Feliway. She's also experimenting with tacky-backed drawer liner paper hung with the sticky side up, to deter clawing of furniture.
And another vote for multiple cat boxes.
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